Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
MANDATE, n., v. Also ¶curtailed v. form mand.
I. n. Sc. legal usage, from Civil Law: a contract by which one person agrees to act (strictly gratuitously) as agent for another in the management of his affairs, or in conducting some special business (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 54). Hence mandatory, -ary, one to whom a mandate is given; mandant, mandatar, -or [′mɑndətər], one who gives a mandate.Sc. 1722 W. Forbes Institutes I. i. 186:
A Mandate or Commission is a Contract, by which one gives Power to another accepting, to look after his lawful Concerns, Judicial, or Extrajudicial, as if he were present. The Giver of the Mandate, or Person authorizing, is call'd the Mandant, and the Undertaker to perform, the Mandatary or Proxy.Sc. 1743 Session Papers, Ramsay v. Hog (14 July) 1:
If this exact Diligence be not followed out, the Mandatar must suffer. He can have no Recourse against the Mandant for the Payment of the Money advanced by him.Sc. 1773 Erskine Institute iii. iii. § 31:
As the bare granting of a power to act can infer no obligation upon the person empowered, who is at liberty to refuse the office, this contract cannot be perfected till the mandatory has undertaken to execute the mandate; which he may do, either by word, by writing, or by any deed which sufficiently discovers his resolution.Sc. 1896 W. K. Morton Manual 280:
The mandatary or agent has power to bind his mandant or principal by his actings within the scope of his authority.Sc. 1927 Gloag & Henderson Introd. Law Scot. 231:
If the contract is gratuitous it is usually termed mandate instead of agency, and the terms mandant and mandatory are used instead of principal and agent.
II. v. To learn a speech, discourse, etc. by heart, to memorise (Sc. 1705 Papers Rev. J. Anderson 74, 1787 J. Beattie Scoticisms 54).Fif. 1708 Two Students (Dickinson 1952) 7:
Thomas is now learning the Rule of Three in whole Numbers and Kenneth is so far advanced in the Fractions wherein they are exercised at spare hours only as a reward of their diligence when they mandate their repititions timely.Sc. 1712 R. Wodrow Analecta (M.C.) II. 46:
He writt evry thing he said in Parliament, and he was at ane incredible fatigue in mandating his speeches.Abd. 1718 Burgh Rec. Abd. (B.R.S.) (6 Feb.):
[Schoolboys] mandating vocables.Sc. 1861 J. Brown Horae Subsecivae 204:
The house was still, except when he was mandating his sermons for Sabbath.Sc. 1897 J. Colville Byways 246:
The custom of manding a set discourse still lives in the U.P. Church.Dmf. 1937 T. Henderson Lockerbie 163:
To “mandate” or prepare a prayer was considered sinful.Sc. 1951 R. J. Drummond Lest We Forget 11:
I had only from that evening at six till Sabbath to mandate my two discourses.
